


Birdwatcher

by beotkkotjin



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Grayson (Comics)
Genre: Faked Death, Gen, implied major character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 10:47:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6607822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beotkkotjin/pseuds/beotkkotjin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a new member of the family. Damian wants to know who they are.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Birdwatcher

**Author's Note:**

> This has been completely jossed by ALL THE EVENTS, mostly because this was written on June 2015. Set after Damian's resurrection, before Dick comes back from Spyral. 
> 
> This is actually a headcanon that just ended up fic-like, so. That says a lot about the quality. Also the first fic I ever wrote for comics.

Batman introduces them to _Birdwatcher_  four months after Damian’s resurrection. In his gravelly voice, he tells them that Birdwatcher is his eye in the sky, able to see even places that Oracle is blind to.    


Damian doesn’t trust them. Surprisingly, neither does Drake.

He tries to weasel information from his father on who this Birdwatcher is, and what it was about them that inspired such trust in the Batman. A bitter part of Damian thinks that not even he is as trusted, and the only thing that makes that fact less painful is the knowledge that neither is Drake. 

Father stays stubbornly silent. Was Birdwatcher a man or a woman? Were they old or young? 

“They’re competent,” the Batman answers.

Birdwatcher communicates entirely in text. Eerie words on a screen that provide information that shouldn’t be available to them unless they’re personally making sure that the information is correct. It makes Damian more suspicious. _A mole. A spy._

The Birdwatcher never talks to them unless it’s to provide information, so Damian never has opportunity to interrogate father’s precious confidante on where their loyalties truly lay. Drake is useless as usual, of course – more so in recent days, coming down to the cave with dark smudges under his eyes. He barely responds to Damian’s taunts. 

Damian isn’t worried. He hardly cares what personal woes Drake is currently experiencing.

Birdwatcher sends a message. It reads: _time to swallow your pride, Red Robin._

Drake seems to go both pale and red all at once, a fact which Damian would usually find hilarious, if he wasn’t so baffled by the message itself. Birdwatcher’s first message that didn’t have to do with a mission, and it was to help solve Drake’s dating woes.

Three days later, Drake returns looking refreshed. He’s in a nauseatingly good mood, and Damian avoids him. He needs all of his food digested, not spilled across the batcave’s cold ground.

Birdwatcher sends:  _Batman can’t teach you things he never learned. This lesson is called compromise._

 

* * *

 

 

Damian realises that Birdwatcher has always sent amused, wry messages to his father, as well as Pennyworth. A _your perpetual frown is better than Botox_  to a Batman whose mouth actually twitches in response. A cursory greeting to Pennyworth whenever the man comes down to the cave.   


Drake, whose first message was apparently the first of many, now got his own running commentary from the Birdwatcher. Of course, this is what infuriates Damian the most.

Damian gets _deal taking place at warehouse XX @ docks @ 23:00 hours_ , and for some reason, this makes him miss Grayson terribly. In a moment of weakness, he mutters that he’s sure he wouldn’t feel any yearning for the smart-assed comments of what was probably a glorified computer virus if Grayson had been there to provide it.

 

* * *

 

 

Damian gets a message on his 11th birthday. It says _happy birthday. I’ll be home to provide smart-assed commentary in person soon._

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> riceandshine|tumblr


End file.
